The Salem Pantry has converted its “mobile market” program into “The Truck,” a pantry on wheels that visits various neighborhoods around Salem throughout the week.
With a kickoff held at the Community Life Center last week, the truck returned Wednesday to a long line of seniors. Despite rain rolling in with it, a crew of volunteers and organizers set up shelves of fruits, vegetables, different protein sources, and canned goods to help the financially insecure stock their pantries at home.
“Since the start of COVID, you’ve seen the mobile program in a lot of different capacities,” Salem Pantry Executive Director Robyn Burns said. “It (the Truck) allows us to provide that same mobile service, but in a much more efficient and pantry guest-focused way.”
Today, the Pantry operates a brick-and-mortar location known as “The Market” at 47 Leavitt St. (tinyurl.com/85f5aazc), while the Truck drops by a variety of Salem neighborhoods. Though all pop-up locations are free and open to all, many of the Truck’s stops aren’t publicized in an effort to ensure only those living in that area get priority access.
That includes stops at Salem High School (tinyurl.com/wd56fmak), Salem State University, Salem Housing Authority and POAH properties, and more. The publicized stops include:
- Tuesdays at the North Shore Physician’s Group, 331 Highland Ave., from 2 to 3:30 p.m.
- Wednesdays at the Community Life Center, 401 Bridge St., from 9:30 to 11 a.m.
The Truck, coupled with the year-old Market, offer the Pantry a “more dignified” way to get help with groceries, Burns said.
“We knew long-term we wanted to do something that was more dignified and had more of a store look on wheels,” she said. “Once the Market opened, that doubled down on that idea.”
The Market continues to serve more people over time, with roughly 1,400 unique visits to the space each week. But the Truck is serving people in a different way, one that’s helping boost activity wherever it stops.
“This is an amazing benefit for our seniors,” Trish O’Brien, Salem’s director of parks and recreation, wrote in an email. “Food insecurity is real and far-reaching. Inflation and fixed income/social security don’t align well at this point.”
That’s where the Truck comes into play.
“We actually picked Wednesdays for the food truck to come because that’s one of our busiest programming days, and we wanted to choose a day that as many seniors as possible would be here,” O’Brien said. “It’s wonderful to see so many people take advantage of the opportunity to get fresh and healthy foods to bring home with them.”
This week, Mike Pasquarello stood among them. While waiting for someone he was helping to transport their groceries, he described the Truck as “very helpful for the people.
“The way the economy is — inflation, prices at the grocery store — this helps out a lot,” he said. “It’s convenient, because they go to the locations where the people are. They travel all over the place.”
For more on the Truck, visit tinyurl.com/48yfb9k6.
Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.
